Dancers hit the main stage at Sac State

“Dance Sites 2012: Faculty Dance Concert” serves as a prism for contemporary dance, separating it into a rainbow of styles and themes. Seven choreographers will present seven dance pieces that cover folklorico, modern styles and everything in between at Sacramento State’s University Theatre.

“There’s a lot of variety in this show,” says dancer Angela Bolivar. “You get so many different aspects of a choreographer’s mind.”

“Dance Sites” also is the only time the students and choreographers get to work in the University Theatre – Sac State’s main stage. Other dance concerts during the year are held in the much smaller Solano Hall Dancespace.

“So once a year, the dancers get to experience a true proscenium stage, a larger audience and a higher production value,” says the director of “Dance Sites,” Professor Lorelei Bayne. “On the main stage, we can do things with lighting and other equipment that we cannot do in Solano Hall.”

Bayne’s piece is titled “Ordinary Woman,” inspired by Marge Piercy’s poem “The Woman in the Ordinary,” and features five female performers who begin the routine in hoop skirts, accompanied by percussion music by Tigger Benford. “I was looking at women’s issues, thinking about how to make a metaphorical statement about the dual nature of being a woman, being strong versus submissive,” Bayne says.

Bolivar and Carmen Kuykendall are two of the dancers in Bayne’s piece. “We’re working with the image of a cage in the hoop skirt,” Bolivar says. “There’s lots of constrictive movement. A lot of gestural work.”

“Then the hoop skirts come off and the movement gets bigger as we break out of the confines of the skirt,” Kuykendall says. An excerpt of the performance is available here.

Sarah Miersch and Diego Campos in a number from Sac State’s upcoming “Dance Sites 2012.”

The style of dance and music is a rich mixture of different cultures in Mexico over the years, from indigenous people to the Spanish and even African themes, Ramirez says. “The mixture of all this music and cultures and languages and food and costumes created what Mexican and folkloric ways are today,” he says.

The moves in Campos’ and Miersch’s duet are very aerobic. “We have to be on our toes a lot,” Campos says. “We have to jump. Skip. We have to turn a lot. At the end of the piece, each of us does 20 spins.”

“There are things that everyone’s going to be wowed by,” says Kuykendall. “There are people flying off of chairs, crazy costumes, tons of music – something for everyone.”

Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. performances are $8 general, students and seniors; and $5 for children under 12 years of age. Other performances are $12 general, $10 students and seniors, and $8 children. Tickets are available at the University Ticket Office, (916) 278-4323.